New stretch target

We made it! We're 9! Thank you.

We're very grateful to all of our crowdfunders for getting us to 100%, your generousity has brought joy to our whole team and we're blown away by your generousity.

We've always loved what Fast & Loose is, and how it takes the amazingly creative playmaking process and crams it into just twenty-four hours. It's amazing to see what can be achieved and how much creativity it inspires and we want to do more with this project.

Our stretch goal is all about taking the Fast & Loose ethos of bold creativity and inspiring engagement with the arts and taking it to schools and community groups across Northern Ireland.

We'd love your support to make this happen, so if you haven't given us a pledge yet then please do, as this project doesn't stop here.

It's a tough year to turn 9 years old.

Accidental Theatre's annual 24-hour playwright project, FAST & LOOSE (a.k.a. Theatre for the Chronically Impatient), is sending out an S.O.S. We need extra love to make this 9th installment happen, and we're launching our supporters straight into the action...

The quick & dirty saga

FAST & LOOSE was born at Sacred Fools in Los Angeles. Accidental Theatre's dramaturg & producer kidnapped the idea and smuggled it to Belfast in 2006. This may have been cruel ("where have the sunshine & decent avocados gone?" F&L routinely asks) -- but it's been undeniably kind to Northern Irish audiences & early-career theatre artists for almost a decade now.

Once a year, a troupe of 20+ artists (writers, directors, performers, dramaturg and stage crew) gather for a hurricane of theatre-making. Accidental Theatre makes new writing in alternative forms; F&L puts four distinctive dramatic voices under gorgeous pressure & constraint -- and lets them fly. Since the project kickstarted at Queen's University then began invading the Lyric in 2012, we've premiered 32 short plays by bravely inventive scriptwriters -- among them Shannon Yee, Ronan Blaney, Jan Carson, Lisa Keogh, Stephen Bleakney, & Fionnuala Kennedy.

Say hi to the company of 2014's FAST & LOOSE 8. (It's the Friday-night meeting, so pardon them for not being blasted with joy & exhaustion yet.)

The beauty of FAST & LOOSE is collective risk-taking. The playwrights get unpredictable inspiration; the directors & cast first meet their script 12 hours before curtain-up; the audience have zero clue what they're walking into. The results are a different breed of magic every year -- silly, inspiring, bittersweet, terrifying, weird, & straight-up hilarious. Hear what it's like for the makers -- a cliff-leap into a day of brilliant craic & learning their craft under pressure.

Flight & risk

Original performance work by early-career artists needs investment, but it's often called "too risky" & neglected in favour of known quantities. Flight takes risk. We need to keep jumping off this cliff and embracing the unknown. Big plans are afoot for FAST & LOOSE. We want to:

tailor the project for schools without GCSE or A-level drama programmes

make it an all-Ireland affair, with simultaneous shows in cities north & south

revive past F&L plays in a series called SPIT & POLISH

continue to encourage leaps of feisty bravery in scriptwriting

But first, we need to make it to double digits! We'll share our birthday cake...

Get on board

For our newest crowdfunding voyage, we're putting our backers right into the fray: The more you're able to help, the closer to the action you get.

If every audience & alumni from the past decade gave £15, F&L would be in the black till puberty. Honestly, every contribution will make an impact. Chip in what you can & pass it on.